aga khan museum toronto’s best-kept secret

Perspective rendering of the future Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, from canadianarchitect.com

The Aga Khan (آقا خان), spiritual leader of the Ismaili Muslims, is celebrating his golden jubilee this year. Fittingly and well-deservedly, his media presence has been everywhere. The Aga Khan has spent his life promoting community development, pluralism, peace, and as a plus, a legacy of great architecture.

The New Ismaili Centre by Charles Correa, from canadianarchitect.com

The Aga Khan seems to have taken a liking for Canada, and we have two major projects under construction right now in Toronto and Ottawa. Toronto outbid London (England!) for the Aga Khan Museum, a three-part project consisting of museum, religious, and cultural centre.

The Fumihiko Maki designed Aga Khan Museum, from canadianarchitect.com

The designs are still being completed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Fumihiko Maki, celebrated architect Charles Correa, Vladimir Djurovik of Lebanon, with Moriyama & Teshima from Toronto overseeing the project construction. This is truly a stellar cast of architects, and I have high hopes that this will be the most exciting project in Toronto for years to come (complete in 2011).

View of Vladimir Djurovik’s landscaped gardens, from canadianarchitect.com

It is too bad though that the old Bata Shoe headquarters were demolished for this plan… As the Toronto Star’s Christopher Hume aptly remarked, “Surely there’s an element of irony when an architecturally worthy building must be destroyed in the name of culture.”

Canada’s second Aga Khan project is the Ottawa Centre of Pluralism, to be housed in the former building of the War Museum.

Aga Khan Centre of Pluralism in Ottawa, photo courtesy of the Government of Canada

A talk with Sandra Ainsley

Peter Bremers’ Icebergs and Paraphenalia, photo courtesy of sandraainsleygallery.com

“Sandra Ainsley established her first gallery in Hazelton Lanes in Toronto in 1984, and has since established herself as a leading dealer on the global market. In early 2002, Sandra was approached by developers interested in reconstructing the old Gooderham and Wort’s Whiskey Distillery. This 10,000 square foot space is now home to one of the finest collections of glass art in the world. 1

Susan Rankin’s Garden Columns (stacked), photo courtesy of sandraainsleygallery.com

In January, I had the opportunity to speak with Sandra Ainsley as a part of my Entrepreneurial Leadership course at McGill University, a course where prominent Canadian leaders from diverse fields are invited to share their life experiences. Below are my thoughts on her visit.

Dale Chihuly’s Red Chandelier, photo courtesy of sandraainsleygallery.com

Sandra Ainsley is many things. Owner of an internationally renowned glass gallery, mother to three children, recognized entrepreneur, friend of Dale Chihuley. Even so, describing Sandra Ainsley in one word is easy.

I would choose genuine.

neat furniture + booths at ids08

some highlights from this year’s show:

clever.

A booth made entirely from flatten-able paper boxes!

ids 2008 collaborations

The four ‘collaborations‘ were designed by Toronto firms Teeple Architects, KPMB, Johnson Chou, and Giannone & Associates. Each team was allowed to use just one material for the construction of a concept from floor to ceiling.

Contours, Teeple Architects and Willis, using Dupont Corian

KPMB Architects, Taproot, & Tron-X, using Smith and Fong PLYBOO

reusing hydro corridor lands

This is a follow up to my earlier post about the amenities that can be found in the Toronto Hydro corridor lands.

CBC News (2005). A transmission tower looms in front of the CN Tower.

Hydro corridors, or electricity lines, are necessary for city development. The Finch hydro corridor carries transmission lines ranging in voltage up to 500kV and varies in width from 30 to 180 meters. This is a swath of mostly green land that cuts east-west across the entire city, and is sandwiched between residential, industrial, and commercial developments. The corridor creates barriers in the surrounding neighbourhoods: North York’s downtown skyscrapers are cut abruptly at the transmission lines, and the York University - Jane Finch neighbourhoods are insulated from one another by this open land.

Chau, Andrew (2008). Finch hydro corridor (in red) and its connections with existing bicycle paths (in green).

While the corridor acts as a barrier in certain communities, there are areas where the green space is a positive influence and supports a range of activities. These include parkland, transportation infrastructure, and sports facilities. The issue surrounding the Finch hydro corridor, and hydro corridors in general, is how they can be changed from an element that separates neighbourhoods, to a positive and unifying amenity. This is an issue of creative reuse of existing infrastructure corridors.

comparing 200 sq.ft. in 2 different contexts

What does 200 sq.ft. mean?

An entire Manila studio apartment (left) could fit inside the space of these Toronto dining and living rooms (right)

In Toronto, it means to the typical downtown urbanite, enough room for two comfy couches plus a t.v., a rug, and maybe an extensive collection of books. In a smaller row house, such as one in Bloor West, the dining and living rooms may together make up 200 sq.ft.

In Manila (the Philippines), 200 sq.ft. is a luxury studio condominium. These Avida Towers are currently under construction in the capital city. There are many apartments in Manila where entire families plus relatives live in this same 200 sq.ft.

urban form studies, from Spacing Toronto

shop dropping and other guerilla art

shopdropping 1 to covertly place merchandise on display in a store. A form of culture jamming. s to reverse shoplift, droplift.

shop dropping is a (legal) way for artists, musicians, to hijack the mass distribution systems of companies to self-promote. because these new items dropped into the stores often do not have barcodes, customers and employees are often left confused. sometimes, they are sold anyways, and the consumer takes home a product they otherwise would not have exposure to!

skyscraper farms for crops and pigs

the idea of farms contained within skyscrapers aren’t new - in fact, a number of proposals have been floated in recent years: for new york city, las vegas, even toronto. mvrdv proposed a “pig city”. there’s an underground farm housed in a former bank vault underneath tokyo.

i wonder if the idea of a vertical farm is even economically feasible, given that there would need to be artificial sunlight in the buildings, watering pumped up tens of stories, the expenses for transportation and delivery of the crops, fertilizer, and soil, and the high cost of land in the city.

wouldn’t urban agriculture on existing rooftops, open areas in the city, be a much more feasible method to increase urban agriculture?

a few recent designs for farming towers:

toronto from the sky

taking a look at the city from another perspective.

toronto: centreville centre island, the beaches, bloor street viaduct, cn tower and skydome, distillery district, high park, music garden, nathan philips square, ocad and ago, ontario place, university of toronto and queens park, roy thomson hall, scarborough bluffs, union station

toronto greenbelts not so green after all

i looked through the long swath of green that cuts across toronto from mississauga to pickering and found something peculiar. even though transmission line corridors are protected and should be free from development, all across the gta they are being co-opted by neighbouring businesses, residents, and public institutions. is there some exemption that i don’t know about?

here’s a thought. why not make these protected corridors bike paths? they’re protected from cars, have little development, and are an already existing network! it makes so much more sense than spending lots of money for narrow and dangerous bike lanes on busy streets.

the green belt is the horizontal band of green cutting across the built fabric

a list of what i found in the north toronto green belt:

in addition to power lines and transformer stations, there exists:
4 baseball diamonds,
1 go-karting and mini-putt course,
3 golf clubs (centennial park golf centre, humber valley golf club, royal woodbine golf club),
8 soccer fields,

1 finch station ttc station kiss n’ ride dropoff,
9 highway cloverleafs (27/401, 27/dixon, 400/finch, 401/427, 401/dixon, 403/hurontario, 403/mavis, 403/winston churchill, 403/407),
18 parking lots (northview heights ss parking expansion, 3 seneca college parking expansions, ttc finch station east and west lots, )
service roads,
3 stormwater retention ponds,
1 trucking depots,
1 yrt and go bus transit bus terminus,

2 cemeteries (beth tzedec memorial park, westminster memorial park),
2 community gardens,

2 greenbelts (finch east greenbelt, ),
4 hiking and biking trails,
20 parks (l’amoreux, centennial park, credit valley park, g.ross lord park, garthdale park, rouge valley park, bayview park, east don parkland, northwood park, summerlea park, west humber park),
1 reservoir (g.ross lord dam and reservoir),
4 rivers (credit valley river, don river, humber river, rouge river),
6 streams (etobicoke creek, mimco creek, ),